This is a rush transcript from "The Five," March 11, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Judge Jeanine Pirro, Harold Ford, Jr. Dagen McDowell, and Will Cain.

It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.

Day 16 of Putin's brutal invasion and Russian forces are pummeling new targets in Ukraine. A massive fireball seen after Russia struck the western side of the country for the first time. That comes as U.S. officials believe the enormous Russian convoy outside of Kyiv has redeployed and the city now braces for a possible ground assault soon.

And during all this chaos, President Biden trying to cripple Russia's economy even more by going after trade.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Putin is an aggressor. He is the aggressor. And Putin must pay the price. He thought he could divide Democrats and Republicans at home. But he failed. He failed. Moscow stock exchange is closed for a simple reason -- I get asked, why is it closed? Because for the last two weeks, because the moment it opens, it will be disbanded. You hear me? It will blow up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Benjamin Hall is in Kyiv, Ukraine with the latest from the ground.

BENJAMIN HALL, FOX NEWS STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jesse. I can tell you just in the last hour or so, we've heard some of the biggest explosions we've heard around the city for the last couple of weeks, off in the distance, but explosions that you felt, explosions that shocked the ground. We're not sure if those are air strikes or rockets. It's certainly an escalation from the usual artillery fire. That thump of artillery fire that we hear.

On the other side of the building, there were trace of fire fired up into the air earlier. We're not sure if that was just a jumpy Ukrainian soldier here. And I say jumpy because this city has been on edge. People have been warning the city that it is going to come under an offensive soon. And so everyone is just waiting, bracing for the inevitable which they fear is coming.

And we see in the images from around the rest of this country and we know it's heading this way. We know that Putin wants the capital, Kyiv, and we know he's moved his troops into place both in the northwest and in the east.

The convoy you talked about, which many people used as an example of Russian logistical problems and supply issues. Finally, yesterday, as per satellite images showed that it had disbanded. Some of them moved up to the north. But other pieces, artillery and howitzers have moved into the tree line are believed to be facing the city.

There are battles going on in some of the outskirts. Some street to street. Brave Russian -- rather Ukrainian soldiers, holding back the Russians. Mainly with these Javelins, which have been so -- so successful in keeping back the Russians.

And so, here we are today, waiting, again, another night to see whether this is the night that Putin's forces decide to attack. President Zelensky speaking out and said that when it did come, he didn't know how long the battle would last.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): It's possible to say how many days we have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it because we want it. It's a patriotic war against a very stubborn enemy which doesn't pay attention to talents of its own killed people, killed soldiers which collects reservists and conscripts to throw them into the hell of this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HALL: And around the country, the Ukrainians are fighting back and very successfully. Although the devastation that we see happens from the north to the east to the south. Putin's ground forces have been unable to enter almost every city. They're in one city of Kherson. But they are -- Ukrainians are fighting back.

The missiles you see fired now, Ukrainians firing at Russian warships in the Black Sea and again, has been fearing an amphibious assault on Odessa that would give Russia control of the coastline. So, there's a lot happening in this country. But a lot of the focus right now here in the capital Kyiv and the sense that any day now, if not any hour, that attack is going to happen.

It doesn't seem as if the Russians have been able to surround the city totally. They have been trying for some time now to calm down both the east and the west and cut off the south. They've been unable to. So, the fear is now they're just going to start firing their longer-range artillery, their rockets into the city, softening this target, cutting off the will of the people before they then send in their troops.

When they do send in their troops, it's going to be difficult. The city is like a fortress. That's what the mayor said earlier. It's going to be their Stalingrad in the words of many people who live here. Jesse?

WATTERS: Thanks, Benjamin. SO, Jeanine, you've seen all the reporting about near action with regards to the capital. But then Zelenskyy comes out and says that we've reached a strategic turning point. And seems to be sounding even more confident with regard to the resistance that he ever has before. How do you read that dynamic?

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Well, you know, I'm not sure how much is posturing because the Russians are widening their aerial campaign.

WATTERS: Yes.

PIRRO: They're talking now about 16,000 fighters coming in from Syria, 16,000 volunteers, which is almost a whole U.S. army division. And you know, then you've got Zelenskyy saying we've reached a strategic point, if anything, that taking Kyiv is what Putin is looking to do. And he is surrounding the city. And it seems like it's not going to be impossible for him to do that in the next 24 hours. Next 24 or 48 hours. I'm not a military expert. I don't know.

But what I do know is that the Russians have been delaying and delaying because they've had food problems and they've had all kinds of fuel problems, weapon problems, but so has -- so has Zelenskyy.

In the end, I don't know where it goes. Let's assume that they take Kyiv. Then what happens? They're not going to stay there. They're not going to occupy. What do they want to do? They want to put their own leader there and then take off and then we're going to be left with an insurgency and it's going to be like Afghanistan all over again.

But there's one thing I want to bring up. There's article 42 of the U.N. powers to do a collective military intervention. No one has talked about that. And I think it's probably too early. But the U.N. does have powers beyond what we're talking about with NATO. They would kick Russia off the security council there and do their own intervention. But who knows where the red line is? Up to this point, Putin is deciding where the red line is, and we're just cowering in the back.

WATTERS: I didn't know you could kick anybody off of the security council. That was is --

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: Well, according to this article, you can.

WATTERS: OK, all right. Well, I think we know who we need to kick off. So, I had a colonel on last night, Cain, and I thought that this was kind of a, you know, preparation to shell the hell out of the capital. But he said they were getting lit up so badly in these convoys by our Javelins that they were strategically retreating behind tree lines so they couldn't get hit. So, it's kind of hard to know what to believe here.

WILL CAIN, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: I think what we have to come away from this is that Russia, Vladimir Putin, I think, is in real trouble, Jesse. The judge invokes Afghanistan. Benjamin Hall invoked Stalingrad. You know, Napoleon Bonaparte said don't interrupt your enemy when he's in the process of making a mistake.

I think Putin is making a massive mistake. To your point, Judge, what's the long-term victory? Is it to occupy a radicalized population in Ukraine over the long term? That would take enormous Russian resources. Is it to put in a puppet government? Which by the way, wouldn't just include a president? Ministers at every level. Local police department. He had to put in a puppet at every level of the government. Which again, I don't think he has the capability of doing.

He may get some short-term victories. He may actually somehow decapitate the government in Ukraine. And then, I think, his problems just begin.

WATTERS: That's a good point. So, if NATO does go in and do some early escalation with MiGs or a no-fly zone, does that in a way bail Putin out and give him a justification to say it's us against the west? Or should we just let them just die on the rocks in Ukraine?

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I don't think it bails Putin out. I think the larger picture here is crystal clear. That if you're a nuclear nation or you run a nuclear nation, and you can turn your country if you're willing to turn it into a pariah state and all that comes with it. But you're going to get away with it. That nobody is going to stand up to you if you have nuclear weapons. That there's not much anything people will do to stop you from aggression invasion war and war crime.

And it's going to lead to no one ever giving up their nuclear weapons. And even a race to get nukes. Watch Iran.

WATTERS: Yes.

MCDOWELL: If a country wants to do this or a country is worried that it would happen to them. And I would point to -- and you look at Russia and then China, in Japan, the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe recently said it was, like a couple of weeks ago, but said he's calling for Japan to host American nuclear weapons.

So, it doesn't pay to be a pacifist. Being a pacifist in this environment doesn't look so good at this point. One other thing about the most favored trade status -- wait, Russia, we cut the oil off, but Russia was still selling us hooch and fish eggs and diamonds? What kind of trade policy is that?

WATTERS: And my father was really upset they've now banned Russian vodka. And it's -- you know, taking action, stocking up. The dictator in North Korea addressed that very point Dagen made. And she said, this is the reason why you need a nuclear weapon. This is the reason. You think you're going to see a nuclear arms race because of what we're seeing in Ukraine?

HAROLD FORD, JR., FOX NEWS CO-HOST: We could. I think that all of the points have been great. I think Will's deserve even more exploration and amplification. Because first thing's first, we've got to deal with this situation. And the unrest and the motivation and the dissent that our efforts are stirring in Russia is real.

I think in the long term, you -- you host nuclear weapons, you build nuclear weapons. You build a huge army. You build a huge armed services to protect your people. The people of Russia ultimately will be let back into the world community once they retire Putin. Once they decide that they, too, want to respect decency and humanity.

Now, we can have disagreements politically. And we will. We have in our own country and we have it with other countries. The question becomes, when you violate those very basic rules, which he is and continues to, an amazing thing happens, you run into the resistance of people, you run into the will of a people who are not going to consent to a dictator.

I think China is watching this. The Chinese people to the extent that they're able to watch this. This victory, if we're able to achieve this victory, which means stopping Putin, won't be an American victory. This will be a victory for people and for good people around the globe.

MCDOWELL: It could be Xi Jinping that stands up and realizes that having this no limits with Vladimir Putin needs to have some limits. It China --

(CROSSTALK)

FORD: It already has.

MCDOWELL: Right.

FORD: It already has.

MCDOWELL: If China gets cut off from the world financial system even in a small way from the euro and the dollar financial transactions --

FORD: I don't disagree with them. My point is just building on top of your point. This is about people. You have government, you have an economy to support people. And if people don't want that, they have the right to say so.

The Ukrainian people have said -- the minute Ukraine have said, we are not going to allow you take our country. We are not going to allow you to determine our freedom --

CAIN: But don't --

FORD: -- and our future.

PIRRO: But one of the problems --

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: An arms people. This should be the end of the debate over gun control. It requires an armed people.

PIRRO: Right.

FORD: Right. We can -- we can invoke -- but I'm saying it takes people to say, we are going to stand firm. Russia thought that these people would capitulate. They're surrounded because they thought they would need an occupied force in the beginning to try to figure some of these things out.

The people of Ukraine said, no, we'll take our BB guns, we'll take our knives, we'll take whatever we have to defend ourselves. That's the story, that's the real story in my estimation of where we are.

PIRRO: Well, yes, they're standing up for freedom, they're freedom fighters. But in terms of Russia, if Russia is controlling the press, the Russian people are being fed a totally different narrative here. They're being fed a narrative, not that Putin is the aggressor, but that Putin is defending Russia. It's not like they have access to all kinds of western information.

PIRRO: But they do know that their sisters, brothers, their fathers, their uncles are over there fighting.

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: Well, to the extent that they do.

WATTERS: Yes.

FORD: And they know they're not winning.

PIRRO: We've seen it in interviews.

WATTERS: All right. And they know everything is a lot more expensive. Coming up, Republicans accuse Biden of bowing to Putin by refusing to arm Ukraine with these fighter jets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We're going to make sure Ukraine has the weapons to defend themselves from an invading Russian force.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: But, look, the idea, the idea that we're going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains and going in with American pilots and American crews, just understand. Don't kid yourself no matter what you all say, that's called World War III. OK?

UNKNOWN: Yes.

BIDEN: Let's get it straight here, guys. An old expression, don't kid a kidder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: President Biden promising to make sure Ukraine has weapons to defend itself, but not fighter jets. Reports are that Biden personally killed a plan for Poland to give MiG-29s to Ukraine while his own V.P. is now calling vicious attacks on civilian, war crimes. GOP senators are furious and demanding Biden start putting pressure on Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): I believe there's a sentiment that we're fearful about what Putin might do. And what he might consider as an escalation. It's time for him to be fearful of what we might do.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AK): We might as well call the commanding general at Ft. Lewis outside of Seattle and tell them to take down the flag and surrender our position because we will never stand up to Russia if every time Vladimir Putin says, boo, we back down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: OK, so let's start with the -- with the mix-up. All right. That Poland refuses to give the MiGs directly to Ukraine. And they want to send them to Germany so that we can give them to Ukraine. Blinken says we will. And then now reports are that Biden said no, we're not going to. If we're going to make sure Ukraine has weapons to defend itself, why not MiGs?

CAIN: Illogical and weak, Judge. Let's deal with the illogical first. Why is it, and I don't understand the red lines completely here. But why is it not crossing the red line to send man pads or surface-to-air missiles or Javelins but somehow to offer up MiGs is beyond the pale, that would provoke Vladimir Putin.

I don't understand that logic, especially when it's described to me as, look, they wouldn't that effective anyway in helping the Ukrainians. If it's not that effective, why would it provoke Vladimir Putin?

But now to weakness, I do agree with Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton. I think there's a very, very thin needle here that must be thread. I do respect the potential, as we all should, of nuclear escalation. But, there's something more than something to be said for the way the President Trump handled his business with unpredictability, leaving your enemy wondering how you might react.

It's clear this administration projects predictability, irrationality and weakness. If we do this, we're worried you may do that. Giving Vladimir Putin every opportunity to do whatever falls outside of those lines. We need to be more unpredictable, stronger, and more rational.

PIRRO: All right. Jesse, if U.S. backs off every time that signals it.

WATTERS: Yes, I -- I agree with that. And now it's become partisan because you have 40 U.S. senators, Republicans, calling for these MiGs. And that's not how it should be. We should be united on this. And Putin sees that. He sees NATO is split. He sees political splits here. And that wasn't good. We shouldn't have this conversation out in the open like that.

We were fine with the Pols transferring the jets. That was fine. We just didn't want to bring them off our air base in Germany and the Germans didn't want it coming off of the German air base. That was an escalation in our opinion, and that's because we haven't been giving them jets to begin with.

We've already been loading them up with Javelins. And Javelins cost $80,000. And old MiG these are like 4.5 million. So, in our estimation that was a huge escalation. So, the question is, if you give them the MiGs and Russia escalation, we have to then escalate. Then you're on the escalator.

That's the concern from the west, because right now, we're safe. Things are fine, this is a one-on-one. We don't need to make it a five-on-one. It's like when your buddy's buddy gets into a fight. It's not your buddy, but it's your buddy's buddy. So, if four buddy jumps in, then you have to jump in. And that's what we're trying to avoid right now.

(CROSSTALK)

FORD: So, you jump in -- so you would jump in if I had a fight with somebody?

WATTERS: Excuse me?

FORD: You'd jump in with me if somebody was fighting me?

WATTERS: You're my buddy.

PIRRO: OK. So, Dagen.

WATTERS: But not your buddy. Staying out of it until you jump in.

PIRRO: So, Dagen, if every time the U.S. backs off whenever Putin says, well, that is engaging war, this is engaging in war, doesn't Putin then just continue to do what he's been doing for the past 20 years? He's committed war crimes before in Chechnya --

MCDOWELL: Yes.

PIRRO: -- and in Syria. I mean, we're just giving him -- he's the schoolyard bully. And nobody says anything.

MCDOWELL: Well, he's certainly shown so far that NATO has no teeth, number one. Number two, to Will's point, why was all of this information being played out about the MiGs in public? So, to all of the moronical liberal Trump haters and the -- the never Trump Republicans who said we finally have an adult in charge, and this is what we get.

We get Afghanistan and this, where they can't settle -- the only -- the world should have found out that potentially jets wound up from Poland and Ukraine when some Russians got killed with them. That's how the world should have found out. That we would have lost World War II if this is how strategy was conducted with a megaphone over the radio.

WATTERS: The Pols jammed us up a little too.

PIRRO: Yes.

CAIN: Which by the way shows a weakness in Biden's ability to keep NATO together.

WATTERS: Right.

CAIN: If some random E.U. diplomat can throw a MiG transfer under the bus, what else is he not in control of.

WATTERS: Right. Right.

PIRRO: But you know, the amazing part of this is the one thing that we're not hearing a lot about, Harold, is the fact that there seems to be some communications going on in Turkey behind the scenes with Sergey Lavrov, who's been personally sanctioned but he's over there negotiating. What do you think is going on there?

FORD: I think potentially a lot. I think Jesse framed this exactly the right way. We can dislike and disagree with the president but I think they've done a pretty good job with a medium size hand and how they've dealt and how they played the hand out.

If you -- what Jesse says comes to fruition, the president believes and the military advisors believe you can escalate to some place we don't want to be. Now you got to balance out with I don't always agree with the Cotton guy, I agree more with Romney on this than I do.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: The Cotton guy.

FORD: Romney laid it out well. Saying we have to -- if he's escalating, how come we can't match the escalation? I think it's a legitimate question on the part of everyday Americans who wonder with this incredible military, our incredible strength and our abilities, how come we're allowing this guy to move us around.

And our president says look, we got to keep NATO together. He's not moving us around as much as you think we are. We're winning more than we think. Furthermore, we got to -- we got to balance this out.

Now, I'm a believer we got to give them every other weapon we possibly can. I'm still a believer we ought to try to find some fighter jets. There are some Democrats who agree with those 40 Republicans who believe we ought to advance jets there. But we should not ignore reality. That if we do, and if they escalate and we escalate again, when does the escalation turn into a technical light nuclear weapon being release. And how do we --

(CROSSTALK)-

PIRRO: Well, doesn't it depend on who's flying the jet?

FORD: Well, not -- so the idea behind it, if you give them the jets, they're going to fight and they're going to use the jets themselves. However, who knows?

PIRRO: It might. It might.

FORD: Who knows. I mean, I think that's the question. And I wish there's not a --

PIRRO: OK.

FORD: -- great neat answer to this unfortunately.

PIRRO: All right. Up next, Democrats have a new midterm strategy, blame everything on Putin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAIN: Well, Democrats have a new midterm message, if anything goes bad, just blame Vlad. The president doubling down on his claim that record inflation is Putin's fault.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm sick of this stuff.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: We have to talk about it. Because the American people think the reason for inflation is government spending more money. Simply not true. Make no mistake, inflation is largely the fault of Putin. Democrats didn't cause this problem, Vladimir Putin did. And we're -- we are working on to fix it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: Working on to fix it.

CAIN: It doesn't look like Americans are falling for that talking point, neither is the judge, as you can hear. A new Wall Street Journal poll finding Biden and the Dems are losing ground on key issues, 57 percent of voters unhappy with Biden's job performance.

Jesse, if I had a line graph, but I don't, because I just fill in on this show, if I had a line graph, I could show the rise in inflation over 12 months and yet we're going to be convinced or they're going to attempt to convince us, no, no, no, this is all the events of the last couple of weeks.

MCDOWELL: I'll do a graph for you.

CAIN: Thank you, Dagen.

MCDOWELL: All you need --

WATTERS: Yes.

MCDOWELL: It's like that.

WATTERS: Everybody knows it. What else are you going to do? If I blame Putin too, if I were Joe Biden. It is, I mean, come on. When you're a politician, when things are good, you say, hey, that was me, I did it. And when things aren't good, you said, what are you looking at me for? It was the other guy.

So, this is all he has. And he's now promised Americans that things are going to get normal now. And the new normal is more dangerous and more expensive. And the people didn't vote for that. So, he's going to have to figure out a way to tell his party that -- I'm not going to say it on the air. And he just needs to run like a one-termer, you know.

No, you're not getting reelected. Screw the donors, screw the base, I'm going to do what's right for the American people. If he could do that and focus on being a populist president, lower gas prices, try to help out with inflation, he'd be much better off. But right now, he is going off a cliff, and it's going to be a bloodbath in November.

CAIN: Off this one issue. Harold, let me just go through the excuses. Inflation is transitory. It's the broken supply chain. It's actually a good thing. I believe Jen Psaki tried to tell us. And now, it's Vladimir Putin. Will he pull off these excuses?

FORD JR.: I don't know. I'm not sure that any of us believe that Vladimir Putin is not a big reason for some of the challenges we're having globally, with prices going up and perhaps recessionary pressures affecting other parts of the world.

Is it all of the -- was this problem exist before Putin? Of course -- of course it did. There's no doubt we were facing some inflation and this problem has complicated things. I think you've laid it out about, right about what the President has to do to get reelected. And more importantly, in his in his short-term vision, what Democrats have to do to avoid losing majorities in the House and the Senate.

It's a long way away still, and we'll see. But Democrats have to be brutally honest. 57 percent disapproval rating for the president translates into a lot of losses in November in congressional seats and Senate seats. You got to get that number back 50-50. And you got to figure out what's most on people's minds crime, the border inflation.

He manages us out of this Ukraine thing in a meaningful way, much like George HW Bush got a huge bounce when he ejected Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. This President standing up to Vladimir Putin on behalf of NATO in the West, it will help them as well. But you have to address the domestic issue.

George HW Bush lost, you know why? Because he neglected economic issues. You focus on the economy, and you're honest with the American people, what you've done, what you've done right, what you've done wrong, and what you can do to correct it. We can salvage some of these seats, and the President can find himself in a better spot two years from now.

CAIN: Hey, Judge, if you dig into this Wall Street Journal poll, the one place that President Biden does seem to have a little bit of positivity is on Ukraine, is on these international conflicts. Does this promises to actually be a life preserver for the Biden administration?

PIRRO: Not a chance, because in the end, everything is about how much you can afford, how it affects your life, whether or not you can pay for groceries and buy gas, or pay for medicine, or do all the things that everyday Americans do, spending now $300 more a month for every household.

Look, the truth is that the Democrats, in order to win, have to stop lying. It is that simple.

FORD JR: Let me write that down.

PIRRO: Stop lying. Stop telling me this is Putin's fault. Stop telling me inflation is transitory. Stop telling me that this administration is in favor of, you know, fossil fuels when we can do all the sought or the sound on tape of Biden saying, yes, we're going to put an end to it.

Look, all Americans want is honesty. All we want is honesty. And the fact that, you know, Biden is saying at least Putin is wrong, I mean, we're shocked. That's like a reasonable position to say. But in the end, it's not going to help him. It's not going to help him. His vice president is not going to help them. His policies are not going to help him.

CAIN: Well, to both of their points, Dagen, this Ukrainian-Russian conflict will go on for some time. Inflation might be there when it's all said and done. I was in Ohio yesterday doing a diner for "FOX AND FRIENDS." I had diners projecting, oh, I think gas will go to $10 a gallon. What is -- what will he be dealing with in terms of inflation and gas prices by the time we get to the midterms?

MCDOWELL: There's no way to know. It certain -- it could remain elevated because you have this Biden and his posse of fools who will not do everything in their power to produce fossil fuels and tap one of our greatest resources here, which again, is prosperity for us. It's protection for nations that currently rely on Russia for natural gas and oil, and it starves Vladimir Putin and this war on Ukraine, but they won't do it, number one.

Biden incorporate his problem since his beginning of his time in office, is that he believes that the electorate and voters are stupid, and he's talked to them like that all along. We're just a bunch of hayseeds and hicks and rubes and deplorables and rednecks. And if you -- particularly if you disagree with them and question them on their recklessness, like their attack on fossil fuels from day one, then they really dismiss you. And that is their biggest problem.

I can tell you that if somebody walked up to my father at the Food Lion and said to him, you pay -- how much were your groceries. Payments problem. Or how much should you pay for gas? Putin's problem. My father would glare at them and say, did somebody hit you in the head? And then he would walk out into the parking lot and he would saw the sideview mirrors off that Tesla with the hatchet in the back of his pickup truck.

And that's how all Americans feel right now especially when they got sold the lie about Bill Back Better is going to lower inflation, we need to spend more money to bring inflation down --

WATTERS: You know who -- you know who killed Build Back Better? Putin.

CAIN: I want to see that video of your dad hatcheting off the sideview mirrors.

PIRRO: Yes, I like the hatchet part.

CAIN: I'm excited with that. All right ahead, another big story to tell you about. Hate crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett --

WATTERS: It's Jussie.

CAIN: Jussie Smollett melting down after learning he is going to jail.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FORD JR: Jussie Smollett going absolutely ballistic in the courtroom after being sentenced to 150 days in jail for staging a hate crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSSIE SMOLLETT, ACTOR: I did not do this, and I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself. And you must all know that.

I am not suicidal. I am not suicidal. And I am innocent. I could have said that I was guilty a long time ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FORD JR: Smollett will also have to pay $120,000 to the city of Chicago and do 30 months of probation. Your Honor --

PIRRO: Yes.

FORD JR: As you watch that, you feel for him in ways because there's something -- there's something else going on with him. Was this the right decision on the part of the sentencing? And what do you think happens next?

PIRRO: Honestly, I think the judge could have given him more time because I have the statute from Illinois. He gets one day of sentence credit for each day of his or her sentence of imprisonment. So, 150 days is really 75 days. And what is that, a couple of months in the county jail? And he's asking for protective custody is if, you know, I'm so special, they're going to kill me. And I'm not suicidal.

I mean, if somebody acted out like that in my courtroom, I would make sure they got -- they're set back down and kept quiet. Until they were quiet, they'd have to stay in the courtroom. They would not leave my courtroom like that.

But that is indicative of everything he did throughout this case. He is arrogant, he is condescending, he is everything that the judge said he was. He was convicted on five of the six counts. And in the end, he imagined and created this racist homophobic schism in this country that he's a victim of white MAGA people in Chicago.

FORD JR: How many -- what was the penalty it could have been? What was the range? I thought he was --

PIRRO: He could have gotten -- my understanding was three years on each count.

FORD JR: Three years on each count.

PIRRO: Three years. But you know, those would have been -- was it five years on count?

CAIN: No, it was at five counts.

PIRRO: Five counts, three years on each count. But they probably would have been concurrent because it's all part of the same case. He's arrogant enough to fight with the judge and say, why didn't you sentence those two brothers that I hired that I gave them a part in the plot? Why didn't you try them and charge them with a crime.

They didn't lie to the police. Jussie. You lied to the police. You created it. You wrote it. You force law enforcement to spend $120,000 and over time. This is a guy who was upset because he couldn't get more of an audience in the courtroom, even during COVID, and he wanted -- you know, he wanted his brother -- his brother has given the judge a lecture on racism in America at the sentencing. These are arrogant people.

He's a convicted felon, five time convicted felon. He's going to prison. He's coming out a convicted con. That's the end of it.

FORD JR: You want to make -- are you finished? I'm going to let Will get a word here.

PIRRO: Yes.

FORD JR: Will, what do you think? Was it long enough sentence? I mean -- because the judge has given -- you saw the range that Judge said.

CAIN: Definitely not. I think he should have gotten the max. If it's three years, if they had run concurrently, then three years is the max, then give him the max. Because what he did in terms of this particular crime perpetuating a hate crime is the max.

I can't think of someone who would have committed this crime in a more heinous and inflammatory fashion. What Jussie Smollett did is dupe a nation, but put a nation on the razor's edge of a race war. This is race relations set on fire. And it doesn't stop there. He was perfectly fine, I guess, with the police randomly rounding up some white dudes and throwing them in jail for his fake crime. Meaning he would have sacrificed the lives of a couple of individuals as part of this theater, as part of this entire hoax.

That is not just, as the judge said, profoundly narcissistic, selfish, and arrogant, that is sociopathic. This is criminal behavior, criminal mindset. I hear what you're saying. He is a broken man. There's something wrong inside. But that shouldn't preclude him from getting the absolute max.

FORD JR: I agree. I agree. Dagen?

MCDOWELL: No, I just think we now know what it looks like to audition for MSNBC or The View maybe if they need a dude, they need some testosterone on the view, maybe he won't fall out of his seat. But to Will's point, he would -- what if he incited a riot. And he took up the time of the police officers in Chicago where murder is rampant.

He has to pay restitution for $120,000 for the overtime spent by Chicago police officers. Not only could he have triggered race riots, but what did -- what did this do to the people and the victims and the families who are truly suffering who deserve those police officers on the beat investigating those crimes?

I'll just add one more thing, I just think people are shocked that he got any jail time because around here we see people -- you know, criminals punching people in the face and send them to the emergency room and they don't even get held on bail.

They don't go to jail. They don't get prosecuted. But if this is a racial issue, I'll note that Lori Loughlin spent two months in prison for that college admissions scandal, two months. So, this is about in line, isn't it?

FORD JR: Primetime?

WATTERS: Oh, he's lucky he's not going to general population because he can't fight. He cried on national television. Blacks don't want anything to do with him. Whites have no use for him either. I don't know what the Latin guys are going to do with him either. So, thank goodness. He wouldn't survive a week.

Gutfeld said the other day the reason he hasn't committed more crimes is because he actually has to then sleep close to people in prison. That's not the reason you don't commit crimes. You don't commit crimes because the food in jail is terrible. I researched what they serve in Cook County Jail.

This is your breakfast, cold cereal and two slices of bread with margarine and two packs of sugar. Launch: Two slices of slimy poor quality bologna with four slices of bread, and then you get Kool Aid. Dinner is ground slop. They say it's not fit for a dog.

So, he's going to wish he had that Subway sandwich that he went out for past midnight because he's going to lose a lot of weight next time we see him.

PIRRO: But there'll be buffed.

FORD JR: Ahead --

WATTERS: Prison buffed.

FORD JR: -- fentanyl overdoses rocking spring break. A shocking report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCDOWELL: Six college students on spring break in Florida overdosing on what appears to be cocaine laced with fentanyl. Rescue crews reportedly arrived to find multiple people in cardiac arrest in the front yard of a house party. One is in stable condition in the hospital while to remain critical.

And Fox News confirming that some of the students were cadets from West Point. Jesse, these are not overdoses, this is a poisoning. They don't know the fentanyl is in the cocaine and they're poisoned by this.

WATTERS: Yes. And it comes from China and it's being brought up by these cartels. And the border is wide open so it makes it easier. And Biden just knocked off a bunch of statutes to -- if you're trafficking this stuff. He just knocked the prison time off for trafficking of fentanyl. So, he's soft on this, the whole government has been soft on this for decades. No one has really woken up to it this -- about couple years ago. Trump woke up to it.

But if someone had died in Ukraine, an American, president would have been out talking about it out in the Rose Garden. But this happens in this country. You know what? He'll never say anything. And that's the problem. You know, you pay all this -- all these taxes to these politicians to protect the border, to protect our streets, to protect our children. And they go off and spend that money and do all that stuff in all across the Atlantic Ocean in another country.

We want people to be cared for here. And that's all the American people are asking for. Care for us, protect us, protect us from these cartels, these Chinese synthetic traffickers. That's all we want. Close the border, protect us. And we're not getting it. And it's going to reach a boiling point. I think it has.

MCDOWELL: It's a second plague coming from China, Will. And it's time for these people in the administration to start going to some funerals, that opioid overdoses and poisonings are the leading cause of death among Americans 18 to 45.

CAIN: Boy, you both have said it. The main concern of the American people is the American people. Let us focus on taking care of our own. And we are being killed poison from outside. You're exactly right, Jesse and Dagen. This is coming from China, coming through Mexico. We are being deliberately poisoned.

When I was a kid, our biggest fear and therefore as a parent, my biggest fear has been that my kids ever drink and drive and it's still a concern. But you guys remember when we were growing up, mothers against drugged -- drunk driving? Now, I'm terrified that my sons -- and they're not old enough to make these choices yet -- will take a pill, some random -- I don't know what it could be because fentanyl is being laced into everything and poison our population.

And to your point Jesse about the one -- 100,000 Americans in a 12-month period have died from drug overdose. I might say, this is -- this should be at the top of our--

WATTERS: So, Russia hasn't killed a single American in Ukraine but Chinese and Mexican criminals have poisoned 100,000 Americans. We have not slept any economic sanctions on China and on Mexico because of that. Where's that economic warfare? I think that would be justified.

MCDOWELL: Yes. And Customs and Border Protection vilified by Joe Biden, vilified by the left, but they're the ones seizing the fentanyl at the border. Fentanyl seizures were up like almost 1100 percent in the most -- recent fiscal year just down in Texas.

PIRRO: You know, this is really an undeclared war by China against the United States, where they are literally paying the cartels and laundering money through the cartels by killing Americans. And whether it's lacing coke with fentanyl or whether it's a pill, you don't know what it might be. It might be a Xanax.

And they put the stamp on it just like an ordinary Xanax and you ask -- a friend of your son asked for a Xanax and it's laced with fentanyl. It is murder. It is murder. And the Biden administration is doing nothing about it.

MCDOWELL: Harold?

FORD JR: I see it a little differently. I won't politicize this. I think one of the things we should -- well, Judge, you can, I'm not. I think the lesson for me from this is anyone taking an illegal drug should assume that it's laced with fentanyl and shouldn't take it.

Now, we should have -- our government should be doing different things. But I'm not going to sit here and blame Joe Biden or Donald Trump or Bill Clinton or Barack Obama or any either Bush's. The reality is we had a drug problem in our country for a while. It's only escalated. But the key tonight is if you're going to take an illegal drug, you should assume that it's laced with fentanyl.

MCDOWELL: And two of those people exposed got it from giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That's how dangerous it is. More breaking news on Ukraine next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Brand new video from Ukraine showing the brutality of Putin's latest attacks. Let's get some quick final thoughts. Let's go to you first, Will Cain.

CAIN: Well, the images on your screen you see are horrendous. They pull up all of our heartstrings every step of the way. I think as we watch this unfold and we deliberate American involvement, I just always ask that we place first American interest.

WATTERS: I do too. Your thoughts.

MCDOWELL: The American people can be upset about their financial instability because of inflation and also ache and grieve and be spiritually and emotionally connected to what's going on in Ukraine. It's not a choice we can do both.

WATTERS: Yes, we are connected. That's for sure. You.

FORD JR: Ukrainian people, your resolve, your strength, we support, we pray for you. And hope we get you more weapons soon.

WATTERS: Yes, inspiring.

PIRRO: You know all our prayers for those families in the hopes that they'll be able to be reunited at some point.

WATTERS: Yes, we're praying for you guys all over the place. Thank you guys so much for fighting on. That's it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next.

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